The present invention relates to television receivers and video recorders, commonly known as video tape recorders (VTR) or video cassette recorders (VCR). The essential components of a video recorder are the electromechanical components including the tape drive mechanism, control relays and electromagnets, magnetic heads and head scanning mechanism. Secondly there are the electronic circuits for processing the video signals being recorded or played back. Thirdly there is the control unit which controls the electromechanical components and the electronic circuit. The control unit may be very simple or provided with many facilities for scheduled recording, various modes of replay and so on. In any event, some means of providing control inputs have to be provided and, at the simplest, these may consist solely of front panel controls. However, it is well known to provide domestic video recorders with remote control units which either plug into the recoder or transmit infrared or ultrasonic control signals to a sensor on the recorder.
Television receivers ae also well known with remote control units as well as front panel controls.
In the professional field it is known to control recorders by transmitting control signals along with the wanted information signal. The recorder responds appropriately to the received control signals. See for example GB 2126002.